The Pulse of Impact Management report released in partnership with the SVT Group to provide a shortcut to practical information about how impact investors are tracking and reporting their social and environmental impact today.

The report includes a snapshot of current practices at the impact due diligence, monitoring and reporting stages among impact investors based on a scan of 257 publications, interviews with 17 firms in the impact investing arena, and SVT Group’s empirical experience in the field over the past 15 years.

“Thus far in the relatively brief history of impact investing, the field has reached consensus about the definition of the term ‘impact investing,’ but not about what the term ‘impact’ itself means,” said Jerry Hildebrand, Director of CSIL. “This report highlights some of the ways that the term is interpreted and accounted for by active impact investors and can help newcomers to the space get up to speed more quickly.”

“We’ve reached a milestone in the impact management profession: so many reports are coming out that look at impact measurement and reporting practices that most folks just don’t have time to keep up. This report provides a one-stop synopsis that helps readers quickly identify the resources most relevant to them,” said Sara Olsen, Founder of SVT Group and coauthor of the report along with CSIL Research Associates Aislinn Betancourt and Courtney Kemp.

Erina McWilliam-Lopez, Social Impact Programs Director at CSIL added: “Academics and emerging professionals with an eye on the social sector will be thrilled to find that we made an entire list of 257 resources that the research team identified available to the field for free on a creative commons license.”

Opportunities identified by the Pulse of Impact Management include:

Understanding the opportunities to generate value from periodic impact measurement and reporting.

Enhancing the manageability of impact data with IT systems that enable capture and sharing of data all along the supply chain.

Addressing how best to account for impact that occurs after the investor exits.

The report offers advice from impact investors to those new to the field, and summarizes the history of impact investing, key terms and concepts in impact measurement, and trends, and provides a practical guide to the most relevant publications. Download the full report here.

About

The Center for Social Impact Learning (CSIL) was founded at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies (MIIS) in July 2014 to proactively advance millennial engagement in the emerging fields of Social Entrepreneurship and Impact Investing through three interrelated lenses: Academic, Experiential, and Action Research. CSIL stands out among today’s impact-driven career programs because it’s designed to serve the full spectrum of emerging social entrepreneurs—from undergraduates to graduate students to accomplished professionals, offering them both valuable learning experiences in the social enterprise field and seamless transitions from one stage of professional development to the next. With a focus on social enterprise management and impact investing, CSIL offers world-class experiential learning opportunities including a unique career launch pad program named the Ambassador Corps, and the award-winning Frontier Market Scouts fellowship and training program. CSIL acts as a vehicle for positive impact in communities around the world by partnering with small and growing social sector businesses and responsible investment funds seeking new talent, and then matching them with globally-minded and diversely-skilled professionals. Visit go.miis.edu/csil

SVT Groupis “your outsourced Chief Impact Officer,” an impact management firm that provides investors, companies and social enterprises support to measure, manage and communicate their social and environmental impact (e.g. theory of change, impact metrics, impact IT systems onboarding and support, retrospective impact analyses and more). As pioneers in the social capital markets, Sara and SVT’s team of subject-matter experts have measured the social and environmental value of approximately $9.08 Bn in private equity, debt and grants in dozens of countries and issue areas. Recent clients include Yo Yo Ma, Restore the Earth Foundation, Fair Trade USA, Global Fund for Women, Beneficial State Bank, and CalPERS’ Environmental Investment Advisor. SVT recently celebrated its 15th year in business. @svtgroup